Canadians have reason to worry about how the government might use our cellphones as surveillance tools in the not-too-distant future.

Ukrainian students turn on lights on their chellphones as they march during a protest at Independence Square in Kyiv.

By:Natalie Brender Published on Mon Feb 03 2014

Let’s play connect-the-dots on two items in the news. The first is the Ukrainian government’s crackdown on opposition protests in Ukraine, which has produced a debate in Canada’s Parliament and the resignation of the Ukrainian prime minister. The second is the federal privacy watchdog’s recommendation last month that Canadians be better informed about the activities of our electronic spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC).

The slender thread connecting these stories is this: a tactic used to intimidate Ukrainian protestors involves a kind of electronic eavesdropping that could easily take place here, and that Canadians should know about.

Two weeks ago in Kyiv, an unsigned text message flashed onto the cellphones of people in the vicinity of fighting between demonstrators and riot police: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.” Local phone companies denied sending the message, and it would seem to have originated from government as a means of intimidating protestors with the threat of reprisal.

While it is unclear how precise the targeting was and who was behind it, experts agree that such mobile tracking would be relatively easy for either the government or allied hackers to pull off. And as a New York Times story about the incident concluded, “it is undeniable that someone on the side of the authorities in Kyiv pulled off a challenging feat: making the concepts of tracking and geolocation momentarily more tangible.”

As a nation of ardent cellphone users, we should find this development more than a little disconcerting. Boosters of e-government initiatives have lauded the potential for speedier, more tailored interface between government and citizens through technology. Advocates of “digital diplomacy” have often been enthusiastic about the potential that personal mobile communications holds for governments to reach out to citizens of other countries. Cellphones have also — witness the Arab Spring — seemed to hold great promise as vehicles for organizing popular protests and documenting state abuses against protestors to a worldwide audience. Yet as the Kyiv incident shows, mobile tracking and communications has a much darker potential as well.

On an academic blog devoted to issues of political violence, University of California professor Barbara Walter has predicted that the advent of government surveillance-texting will likely have chilling effects on future protestors elsewhere. Either it will discourage people from activism for fear of being identified and arrested, or it will lead them to leave their cellphones at home when protesting, at the cost of capacities for coordination and real-time documentation of events. “GPS has made carrying a cellphone too risky,” says Walter, “at least until protesters can figure out a way to guarantee that the government can no longer track them.”

Thankfully, Canadians do not have to fear that mobilizing in the streets while carrying cellphones could result in mortal peril, as do protestors these days in Ukraine and elsewhere. Still, it’s something to be concerned about — and a reason to keep a close eye on what CSEC is compelled to report about its electronic monitoring activities within Canada.

Even if it’s not clear what course of action beyond rhetoric is best for Canada and other Western countries to take with respect to Ukraine, recent events there do convey one clear message. The dangers posed by electronic surveillance go well beyond concerns of mere personal privacy, to our most important political freedoms as well. We may not need to regard our cellphones with dread just yet — even now knowing that government filters can scoop up reams of data as we pass through airports or play Angry Birds. But it looks like the day is fast approaching.

Natalie Brender is a freelance writer. Her column appears on thestar.com/opinion mostly every Tuesday.

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